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ON VETERANS DAY 2024

Veterans Day is for the old folks who remember their youth and those who were young with them. They remember the young people who didn’t have the chance to get old. My Dad got a chance to get old. He out-lived his Dad, just like I’m out-living him.

BOOMER SLUR? WATCH YOUR MOUTH

The baby boomer slur comes from younger people. It goes like this: “You sound just like a Boomer.” Yeah, we get it. Just like a boomer. So I did the research, the hard work, the deep dive. In other words, I watched the opening to Saving Private Ryan.

PAIN TOLERANCE STARTS WITH A THRESHOLD

Pain tolerance is a measure of how much pain you can take before tapping out. The pain threshold is when you start feeling pain. Who knew? Let’s start there.

CHANCE MEETING WITH A F4 FIGHTER PILOT

A chance meeting along the banks of the Willamette River in downtown Portland was the best break I’ve had in a while. I met a man named Jim after I asked about his dog. Dogs are a good icebreaker, and we shared a common breed, a doodle dog. One thing led to another, and I […]

TIME CHECK: IT’S NOT ON OUR SIDE?

Every time you look at a clock it’s a time check. It’s time to do this, time to do that, time for dinner, time for bed, time to repeat it all another day. And that, dear readers, is the story of life. But, what about all the stuff that happens in between the time check? […]

BOOMER STATUS: WHAT MAKES A TRUE BOOMER

Boomer status, baby boomer that is, is more than a birth date. Technically speaking, anyone born between 1946 through 1964 is a baby boomer, but there’s a big difference between the front end and the back end. Legend has it that virtuous American soldiers and sailors returned from WWII on a magic carpet to resume […]

NEW EXPERTS CHECK IN WITH MEDICAL AND MILITARY WIZARDRY

New experts are coming out of the woodwork, crawling out from under rocks, and they need to be heard. Luckily for the rest of us we have social media to learn from them. After enough twitter and Facebook scrolling, I’m ready for class, ready to discover new insights from these evolving geniuses. You know I […]

SOLDIER ADVICE: WHEN TO STAY, WHEN TO GO

Soldier advice usually comes from one place in the beginning. Can you guess where? If you said “recruiter,” you are correct. First they make an alluring argument for signing up. College money, healthcare, clothing, living expenses, food allowance. It’s all right here for a military career. If that hook isn’t sunk deep enough, Drill Sergeants […]

OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER? A FAMILY TIMELINE

Old enough didn’t matter when I bought a switchblade knife in Mexico. I was a twelve year old with my parents on a family car trip. After driving across Texas we stopped in El Paso after the Carlsbad Caves, then a day trip across the border to Juárez. After proudly showing my mom my new […]

FATHER’S DAY INSPECTION

This is a Father’s Day inspection I’m glad I didn’t see as a kid. My dad is the guy with the sword. A sword?